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Comment by yukichan | Hacker News Reader

Dropbox is profitable yeah? Why wouldn't they be around in 5 years? Google's prices are so much cheaper than Dropbox, but the ease of use with Dropbox, and the fact that I have my families devices and computers already set up probably means I wont ever switch.

I take a picture with my phone? It's on dropbox. My wife takes a picture? It's on dropbox. I take a screenshot on my PC? It's on dropbox.

I even wrote a little silly bookmark tool to use the dropbox API.

Dropbox is amazing. It's more than just about the price.

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Dropbox is profitable yeah? Why wouldn't they be around in 5 years? Google's prices are so much cheaper than Dropbox

You just answered your own question. Dropbox is convenient because you've already installed it everywhere. Google Drive is already on your Android phone and in your e-mail inbox.

I think that's actually part of the problem, I think of Google Drive as where I put attachments from email, not files and folder on my computer.

I can't put my finger on it but Drive just seems clunky, especially with the GMail / Docs integration.

I would argue drive is better. Not only does it have device syncing like dropbox but it seamlessly integrates with the google ecosystem. And now its much much cheaper.

Try it on Ubuntu or Mint then! Talk about clunky, you have no choice but to get the stuff from the web and download. That's why I stick with Dropbox.

"Dropbox is profitable yeah? Why wouldn't they be around in 5 years? Google's prices are so much cheaper than Dropbox,"

I'd just stop you there because you may have answered your own question.

But we are a niche. Most people who have an Android phone will store pictures automatically in Google Drive/Plus (if anywhere).

All these things are true of Drive, though. The only real reason I haven't switched over is, like you, all my stuff is already in Dropbox, and they're pretty much the same thing, so I wouldn't gain that much by switching (I actually use Drive too, but only for its original form, Docs). The new price is a big discount, but we'll have to see if Dropbox moves to match it in some way (they have less room to optimize there, but it's certainly feasible...amazon has been cutting their rates too).

If I was new to the market, though, none of that reasoning really applies.

Surely there have been companies that have shut down less than 5 years from the last time they were profitable.

I get the poart about already having it set up, but is Dropbox usability that different from Google Drive? My phone uploads photos automatically, and the rest seems equally easy to set up.

off topic and a silly question: "bookmark tool that uses the dropbox API", what do you mean by that?

I made this thing:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dripmarks/oeibaijn...

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